Attitude

Maintaining a positive attitude at work is an essential aspect of being a professional. By remaining positive no matter the circumstances, we help to maintain a positive work environment, and avoid contributing to workplace toxicity.

Everyone wants to work in a positive work environment, where people seem happy, are feeling good about the work they're doing, and are getting along with the people they work with. However, happiness is a fleeting emotion that can't be maintained indefinitely, and when people try to pretend they are happy when they are not, it comes across as inauthentic, insincere, and disingenuous. If the goal is to maintain a positive work environment, the goal should not be to pretend we are happy, but instead to maintain a positive attitude.

Positivity is a matter of perspective, whereby we can choose to interpret a situation as either being positive or negative. The phenomenon of us being in control over how we view a situation is often stated in the question, "Is the glass half-full, or is the glass half-empty?" which illustrates that we can choose to see a glass filled to the halfway point as being either half-full, or we can choose to see it as being half-empty. The difference between someone with a positive attitude, and someone with a negative attitude, is that a positive person makes the conscious choice to see the glass as half-full, whereas a negative person chooses to see the glass as half-empty.

Separating the concepts of happiness and positivity would indicate that we can have a negative attitude while being happy, and have a positive attitude while unhappy.

For example, if a negative person wished that a colleague would fail, and that colleague does end up failing, they would be happy while having a negative attitude. If the colleague who failed was unhappy with failing, they could still have a positive attitude by saying, "I'll learn from my mistakes, and do better next time."

Even when encountering a negative situation, you can usually still find a way to have a positive attitude.

Imagine you were working on a project that you enjoyed, where you found the work interesting and fulfilling, and loved the people you were working with. Now imagine that you and your team were informed that your project was canceled, and that the members of your team would be redistributed throughout the organization, such that you would no longer be working together. The situation itself is negative, but that does not necessarily mean that the inherent negativity of the situation should cause you to adopt a negative attitude.

Instead of looking at the project cancelation as a loss, your attitude might be, "Now I get to work on something new, learn new skills, and grow in my profession." As you reflect on the colleagues you will no longer be working with, your attitude might be, "I will still have the relationships with my colleagues, even if we are no longer working together, and now I have an opportunity to meet new people, and build new relationships."

Note that this does not mean that you are necessarily happy about the project cancelation. In fact, you may need time to acknowledge your feelings of disappointment, disillusionment, or even anger. However, adopting a positive attitude simply means that you choose to look at the situation for its positive attributes rather than solely focus on the negative.

Unfortunately, there are people who tend to always focus on the negative, and who refuse to acknowledge anything positive. These are negative people with perpetually negative attitudes, and they both create and maintain toxic work environments.

As there is no value gained from having a toxic work environment, and there is no value in only seeing things from a negative perspective, people who maintain a negative attitude tend to have limited value to the organization. If someone constantly complains about how bad things are, blames other people for causing problems, or spreads hurtful rumors about their colleagues, the organization would be well within its right to invite the person to leave.

Being a negative person, and perpetuating a negative work environment, is the antithesis of being a professional, as professionals rise above their circumstances, focus on the positive, and move forward towards the next opportunity.

If you do happen to find yourself having to work with a negative person, you can choose to either ignore their negativity, or try to change their perspective from one of negativity to positivity.

Ignoring a person's negativity requires that we filter what they say, such that you don't pay attention to anything they say that is negative, and instead only listen for things that are useful, insightful, and actionable.

For example, if you were to ask a negative colleague if they knew the agenda for an upcoming meeting, and they said, "I guess it's to go over project priorities, but I don't know why we're having a meeting - people should already know this stuff - we're just wasting time," you should only have listened to, "To go over project priorities," as it answered your question, and everything else was just counterproductive negative noise that had no value.

If you choose instead to try to change someone's negative attitude, you will most likely need to shift their perspective by countering their negative interpretation of a situation with one that is positive.

For example, if they say, "I can't believe we still haven't gotten the requirements for what we need to build," you might say, "At least we've got more time to prepare for when the requirements do get here." If they say, "These deadlines are crazy and only a moron would think they're realistic," you might say, "At least our project has funding, and our work is important enough that people are holding us accountable for getting it done." If they say, "This whole place is going down the toilet, and I can't wait to get out of here," you might say, "At least we have a job, and if we don't like it, we can leave any time we want."

Phrases that start with, "At least," which are then followed by something you are grateful for, should be your default response should you choose to try to shift the perspective of a negative person. Over time, their perspective might change, but if it doesn't, at least you will have made it clear that you are not a good person to complain to, as you will always try to see the positive in any situation.